The Wales international has spent the past three months on the sidelines recovering from an ankle injury and instantly reminded the Santiago Bernabeu fathiful of his influence.

Introduced by Zinedine Zidane in the 71st minute, it took little time for Bale to burst forward with blistering pace and make it game over for Real's opponents, latching on to a ball from team-mate Isco to fire past Espanyol's hapless goalkeeper, Diego Lopez.